Alien Swarm - New non-FPS Valve game out Monday!

Awesome! Would love to do a custom map for that if i find the time.

Hah! Nice, I remember playing that for UT2004 when it was first released. Was really good fun back then.

Let's use PhillipK's sci-fi textures and do a mini Mapcore comp OR co-op project

QUICK SOMEONE ORGANIZE IT

Quote from Campaignjunkie

Let's use PhillipK's sci-fi textures and do a mini Mapcore comp OR co-op projectQUICK SOMEONE ORGANIZE IT

Sounds like fun, except that I suck at everything :roll: I must enter a time machine and go back to before I let go, and get ultra skilled so that when monday comes, I'm up to date with you guys!

So the story continues... Apart from HL, valve never really created anything original.

I guess It's also alright to grab good ideas and improve them further, so far, they did not disappointed! And this one is free so no one can complain. This was a bit unexpected tho, where did this came from all of a sudden?

yeah buff space marines killing aliens is so super original right? ;D

i think the whole "valve never made anything of their own" is a pretty strawman argument; sure they take IP from other people, but it's generally from people who are still passionate about games, students and modders and so on.they are not being slipped a buck to make some washed up money-hungry producers idea of what will sell this month.

and look at how much they change the games; portal was just a rough idea, valve added their expertise to it and look how it turned out. i really doubt if those students had tried to release it on their own, or had even got the help of someone like activision it would have turned out half as good as it did.

then there's TF2, everyone's favourite First Person Hat Acquisition Simulator; the idea was not their own, sure, but look at how different even TF1 is compared to TF2. Valve added not just an art style, but an art style that complimented gameplay. they pushed forward with huge free updates to keep the game going strong and draw in new people ($14 for 5 maps! HEY GUYS WANNA GARGLE SOME MORE OF KOTICKS SEMEN?!), they revamped the entire game and made decisions that other people were against but which turned out to be better for the game.

so while i will agree with you that they haven't made a new in-house IP for 10 years, i think it's unfair to say they haven't been orignal and innovative, supporting good ideas from other people with their manpower and experience.

although that swarm game looks pretty fucking rough and is it me or can i see a shitload of HL2 textures in there?

also i agree, mapcore co-op pack ;D

Quote from Rick_D

then there's TF2, everyone's favourite

Debatable!

P.S Alien Swarm, yay. Been waiting ages for this bloomin thing.

Quote from Campaignjunkie

Let's use PhillipK's sci-fi textures and do a mini Mapcore comp OR co-op projectQUICK SOMEONE ORGANIZE IT

+1!

Here's the editor they're including: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Swarm_TileGen

Holy shit this is going to be awesome.

Quote from KungFuSquirrel

Here's the editor they're including: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Swarm_TileGenHoly shit this is going to be awesome.

If I'm reading this right, the levels are dynamically set up like Torchlight or Diablo levels, with predefined rooms being put together as a level on load? That's awesome as hell.

Doesn't that make a mapcore project even more possible? Where everyone can just make a single room (with phils textures of course) and then they are set up in whatever way the generator feels like.

If I understood how that editor works...

Well you have to have some static stuff by the sounds of it, the randomization just fills the gaps between static placed tiles. I don't think you can give it a bunch of tiles and say "Make me a campaign". But still, it would be super easy to make levels using it.

I don't get the sense that it's random, but rather that you build custom tiles in Hammer, then use the tile editor to stitch them together. Check out this page:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... and_Themes

Edit: Man, how awesome is it that you could just create packs of tiles and release those for people to build their own campaigns and stuff. I'm gonna love the hell out of this, I think.

Edit 2: Hmm, looks like I mis-read that and it does do the generation in TileGen. Looks like you can tag your different links to help nudge things in the right direction. Neat.

Quote from KungFuSquirrel

I don't get the sense that it's random, but rather that you build custom tiles in Hammer, then use the tile editor to stitch them together. Check out this page:http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... and_Themes

Edit: Man, how awesome is it that you could just create packs of tiles and release those for people to build their own campaigns and stuff. I'm gonna love the hell out of this, I think.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... sion_Rules

This page mentions randomization and how to facilitate it with tile sizes and layouts.

Curses! You replied before my second edit

Quote from Steam

Steam - ErrorThe Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

Curses.

Only place I can get the download to start from is Ukraine, where it's downloading at less than a tenth my max speed. Apparently there are new Steam content servers in my city, too... but they're too busy. Aw well.

Behold! Overloaded servers! Downloading at nearly 1 nanobyte/sec. Swedish server is hammered :<

Also, an achievement in the game earns you a hat in Team Fortress 2.

shock and awe as the steam servers die......